Another Dollar. Another Day.
Friday, Dec. 13, 2013 8:33 AM

�Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.� ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

I have been extremely happy lately, considering the circumstances of my life. Perhaps it's the fact that my bank account is in a secure position so I'm no longer fretting over whether or not we'll have the money to pay the bills, or it's because my cats are acting like kittens once again and loving up on anybody who walks through the front door, or the fact that Kent has gained 15 pounds and is no longer falling down. It could be a number of other things, too. I am not going to question it. I'm just going to sit here, in my office that I love, and eat my strawberry Yoplait yogurt; which, by the way, tastes extremely good right now.

I went to bed at 8:00 PM last night. Normally, I would have stayed up late watching TV or reading a book but last night I just wanted to lay down and fall asleep. Because I went to bed so early, I woke up at 7:00 AM. Instead of crawling back under the covers and attempting to fall asleep again, I decided it wasn't worth it. Instead, I crawled out of bed, got dressed, and drove to work. It was really strange driving to work when it was somewhat dark outside. It was also really strange driving to work with so much traffic. On my way here, I couldn't help but think, "so this is what it feels like to be part of the morning crew." A fleeing feeling. A fleeting moment.

I've been reading a lot of books lately. They've been okay, but I'm flying through them. My favorite one out of this cluster of books is The Book Thief, which I read in early November. I haven't seen the movie yet, but the book was really good. All the other books I've read after it are just a jumble of letters and words thrown across empty pages. I couldn't tell you what I read unless you started to describe the book. Then I could probably be like, "oh yes, that book is about this and that." Then again, with the way I ran through the books, I may confuse the books into one big giant book and story line. I used to be good at remembering books, their characters, and everything that happened within the book even if I read one book after another. Now days, it's like, "did I read this book yet?" And only after I've gotten a chapter into it do I remember that I already have.

Is this memory lapse an age thing? Maybe it's a combination of getting older and the stress I'm in all the time. I'm shocked I don't have to write absolutely everything down. I do blame the fact that all my books are now on the Kindle instead of in paperback. It's much harder to keep track of what I've read and haven't read on this thing. I don't know if it's because I share an account with my mom, sisters, and niece, or if it's possibly something else. I wish there was a way to show which ones you've read versus which ones you haven't on the Cloud. This way, I'd know if I've read it or not or if it's something my sisters just downloaded onto the Kindle or not. All the books I download are automatically on my device as new, but the stuff they download just gets jumbled up with all the books I've already read. Yes.. this is what I will blame this memory lapse on. I will blame the Kindle! I miss normal books. I really do. The only nice thing about the Kindle is that you can travel lightly and download a new book anywhere that has free wifi, and the fact that you can lie in bed with the lights out and read. Other than that, I miss the feel and the smell of books. I also miss going to the bookstore and feeling in my element. Because of the Kindle and all this new age technology, the bookstore near my house closed down and became a Marshall's.

Now days kids even do their homework on the computer. What if you're poor and can't afford the internet or a computer? How are you expected to do your work then? I always likes tugging my books home and doing my homework on a piece of paper. Most schools don't even teach the kids cursive anymore, or how to write correctly, for that matter. I for one, love my handwriting. I love writing letters that are mailed versus this whole e-mail thing. Sometimes, I think technology is worse for us than it is better.

What if we have an unexpected power outage that last for days or all the electricity in the world disappeared? What if every living thing on the planet disappeared but you? You don't even get a dog for a companion in this scenario like Will Smith did in whatever movie he made that was along these lines of thinking. Yeah, I can't tell you what movie it was. I never saw it, but I remember the previews slightly. I often think about what it would be like if all of that really happened. Would I be able to survive very long? After all, everything would be dead. Nothing left living. If the plants died too, I'd be dead for sure. No way anyone can survive without oxygen. If the plants don't die, then there's a possible chance. I'd just have to learn how to garden?

Okay. Okay. My mind is now thinking of strange end of the world scenarios. No more! For right now, I am going to log off, read the current book I'm reading, and hope I can get off work early since I showed up so early.

Until next time.... tally ho!